Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Roald Dahl’s best loved children’s story, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is 50 years old this year, so get your own golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s whipple-scrumptious party and join in the chocolate-coated fun.

The West End production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – The Musical has been playing to sold out audiences since May last year. With ingenious staging and a little updating of the story, Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes’s production has proved a hit with theatre-goers, particularly younger ones. The actor Alex Jennings takes over the role of Willy Wonka from Douglas Hodge in mid-May. (Charlie is on at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in Covent Garden, WC2, booking until 30th May 2015, suitable for age 7+).

Also on in the West End is another Roald Dahl hit adaptation, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s award-winning musical,Matilda, (running at the Cambridge Theatre in Covent Garden, WC2, booking until 12th December 2014 suitable for age 6+).

Grandpa Joe’s Giant Storytelling Bed(15th to 23rd February at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, age 6+) in which Charlie Bucket’s favourite grandad tells stories inspired by his adventures in Wonka’s chocolate factory on an enormous bed, or join Roald Dahl’s favourite illustrator Sir Quentin Blake(23rd February at Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank, age 6+) as he draws live on-stage and talks about his work with Dahl. Both events are part of the kids’ Imagine Festival, a February half term event (until 23rd February at the Southbank Centre, SE1), which features theatre, art, music, dance and talks from children’s authors such as Francesca Simon, Jacqueline Wilson, Cressida Cowell and Lauren Child.

At Easter the world famous Kew Royal Botanic Gardens is laying on Charlie chocolate-flavoured activities for kids, organised by the Roald Dahl Museum, from designing a new Wonka chocolate bar or a recipe for a new Wonka sweet (5th to 21st April at Kew Gardens near Richmond, TW9).